Surrey council voting on $5.8M contract for heat downtown
Published 2:45 pm Friday, May 8, 2026
Surrey council will vote on awarding a $5,785,259.76 contract to SHARC Energy to supply, and maintain for one year, three new district energy sewer heat recovery units for the city’s new facility.
If approved Monday, the spending limit will be set at $6,075,000. Scott Neuman, Surrey’s general manager of engineering, said if the contract is approved the units are expected to be supplied within 32 weeks and installed by Fall 2028.
Surrey’s District Energy Utility so far provides heat and hot water to 49 multi-family and mixed-use buildings in the City Centre.
“Currently, most of the system’s heat is generated by natural gas-fired boilers, which enabled rapid and cost-effective development of the network,” Neuman noted in a corporate report. “The City is advancing low-carbon energy sources to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the use of sewer heat recovery.”
A new facility is proposed to connect to a Metro Vancouver sewer main and extract thermal energy from the sewage by way of an integrated heat exchanger and screening process. The facility is expected to supply more than 50 per cent of downtown’s yearly heating demand, Neuman added, “significantly reducing reliance on natural gas” and supporting “future opportunities” for cooling and heat recovery.
The project is expected to cost $89 million.